How far am I with my goals for 2018 – half-year summary?

The first half of 2018 is already behind us. And I have written two different posts about my progress on my various goals. This post is just a summary of my progress on all my goals. Just take a look at my post on my Vrijheid Fonds for my review on my goals for my Vrijheid Fonds and if you want to know what my progress on my goals for my website, take a look at what did Q2-2018 brought for polliesdividend.com?

Goal 1: Receive €3,600 in dividends during the year of 2018

In the first half of 2018 I received € 1,792.73 in dividend income. At the end of the first half of 2018 my projected dividend income for whole 2018 is €3,448.

Dividend

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Total

2014

90.11

509.38

226.04

289.32

1,114.85

2015

323.04

634.43

401.28

414.83

1,773.58

2016

511.80

769.88

1.148.63

649.08

3,079.38

2017

673.10

923.18

726.82

758.06

3,081.16

2018

685.87

1,106.87

So with a projected dividend income of € 3,470, I’m still lacking a bit to reach this goal in 2018 ;-). My reported dividend for the first half of 2018 isn’t as high as I hoped it would be at the time of writing down my goals for 2018. I did pump up my projected dividend income with almost € 200 since Q1, but it still will be a real challenge to achieve this goal.

So this goal is still a big challenge than I original thought. Despite everything, I will still do my utmost best to maximize my dividend income for 2018.

Grade: Challenging!

Goal 2: More diversification in my Vrijheid Fonds

My Idea behind this goal is that I want to position myself appropriately to protect my Vrijheid Fonds and decrease my risk factor for when the markets really dip. In order to do this, I want to diversify geographically by investing more in European companies.

2017

HY – 2018

NL/Europe

32,24%

33,66%

USA

52,78%

51,80%

Geographical diversification 7/1/2018

2017

HY – 2018

Stocks

85.01%

87,01%

Bonds

6.37%

6,54%

Mix

6.79%

6,35%

Cash

1.82%

0,10%

Assets allocation at 7/1/2018

2017

HY – 2018

Consumer Discretionary

19.98%

19.92%

Consumer Staples

20.74%

19.43%

Energy

15.33%

15.41%

Financials

3.92%

3.22%

Health Care

5.77%

5.95%

Industrials

0.96%

2.27%

Information Tech

2.51%

2.77%

Materials

1.26%

1.32%

Telecommunications

3.57%

2.82%

Utilities

2.21%

3.67%

REIT

8.77%

10.23%

Cash

1.82%

0.10%

Mutual funds

13.17%

12.89%

Total

100.00%

100.00%

Sector allocation at 7/1/2018

If we take a look at these tables, you can see a small adjustment in all three tables. I’ll keep working on these diversification.

Grade: Passing!

Goal 2: Invest a total of € 7,500 new cash

In order to let my Vrijheid Fonds grow, it needs fresh cash. In the first half of 2018 I added a total of € 4,020 of fresh capital.

I have put this new cash to good use. Every month I bought a lit bit more than € 100 worth of mutual Funds for my “Safe-haven-sleep-well” part of my Vrijheid Fonds.

I bought my first German company – Bayer AG, just click on Bayer AG to read my buy-report. Furthermore I bought some extra Realty Income (O). Read this post for some more information about this recent buy. I initiated a position in 3M – MMM, just click on the ticker for my buy-report. And last but not least, I bought some Consolidated Edison (ED).

Goal 4: €300 on passive income from side hustles

Only Bol.com and Amazon haven’t paid out to me in 2018. The other three side hustles have paid out to me.

I received € 71.65 from Google AdSense, € 70 from Euroclix and a whooping € 360 of my membership of the member’s board. For more information on my side hustle income see my latest report hustle report May 2018

To sum-up my progress in this goal; in the first six months of 2018 I made € 501.65 in side hustle money! As you can see, I already achieved this goal! So it is time to adjust my goal. My new goal is of course a little bit higher, I hope to make € 800 in passive income from my side hustles.

Grade: Passed and Updated!

Goal 5: Grow Polliesdividend.com to 36,500 views in 2018

The numbers on my site:

Year

Views

Visitors

2016 – H1

15,075

5,778

2017 – H1

14,455

4,903

2018 – H1

26,877

9,340

So as you can see, in the first half of 2018 I had a total of 26,877 page views. And I’m happy to report that this is an increase of almost 86% when compared to the same period in 2017. For 2018 it comes down to an average of 147 views per day (my goal for 2018 is an average of a 100 view per day).

Grade: Passing!

In this same goal I set another sub-goal. I wrote that I’d try to have a least 4 guest-bloggers on Polliesdividend.com this year. This sub-goal I unfortunately have done anything about. I haven’t had a guest-blogger yet. So if you are interested in writing a guest-post on Polliesdividend.com, please contact me by email: Pollie@polliesdividend.com

Goal 6: Write a least 75 post on Polliesdividend

In the beginning of this year I set my self a challenging goal, because I find it more and more difficult to balance my time between family, work, sport, books and Polliesdividend.

Therefore I knew I had to change my routine to reach this goal. And that is exactly what I did. And I’m happy to report that in the first half of 2018 I wrote a total of 81 blog posts!!!

I already reached my goal! Well that is really great. So I have to set a new goal. I will write at least 150 posts on Polliesdividend.com

Grade: Passing and adjusted!

Goal 7: Keep investing in my self

For my physical sharpening I have been going to the gym almost two times a week in the first quarter. My mental sharpening I did by reading two books and followed 4 webinars.

Lets take a look at the finance book on which I did a book review in the first half of 2018 (the other book I did my review a couple of days ago, so I will report it in my Q3 letter).

The Intelligent Investor – by Benjamin Graham
In my opinion, this book is a must read for all investors. If I have to sum up what I learned in this book, I would probably say that the best path to wealth in investing is patience, good research and avoiding mistakes

The Pollie-rating for this book is:

Products from Amazon.com

For the rest of 2018, I already have some books lying around that I want to read. Do you have a recommendation for a good book I should read? What is your favorite book about finance/investing? I like to here from you!

Grade: Passing!

Finally

Overall the first half of 2018 has been a good half-year for my Vrijheid Fondsand Polliesdividend.com I’m passing 6 out of 7 of my goals and even adjusted one!I’m proud of it!

How about you? How are you doing with your goals for 2018? Passing or failing?

In order to do this, I want to diversify geographically by investing more in European companies.

—-
Interesting thought, as usually people would diversify in other (less correlated) asset classes. Your stocks allocation grew higher compared to bonds. I see you put REIT inside stocks, which can be a bit confusing.

Hi, I think it’s a matter of preference where you allocate your assets. An investor can tilt more on specific asset classes (stocks, bonds, reits, etc) and on specific regions. You are mentioning you want to diversify globally, however it looks to me you are shifting from the US to Europe. These 2 markets are highly correlated.

Hi Dirk, thanks for taking the time to help me in my search for more diversity. In the second quarter the dollar became stronger and therefore my dollar stocks got more worth and that is why it looks like I invested more in the US.

Pollie

I’m a 40-something old guy from The Netherlands, aka Pollie.
I have a family with two little kids, a day job, a house with a garden and this blog to keep me busy. So not much different from you; an investor with a busy life with limited time to trade.
I want to share my journey to hopefully inspire others and also to track my progress towards my ultimate goal of financial independence.
Pollie@polliesdividend.com